1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.
2. Related Art
An ink jet printer that performs printing by discharging an ink from a plurality of nozzles. In the ink jet printer, printing is performed by a relative movement between a printing head that includes a plurality of nozzles which discharges the ink, and a printing medium.
In the ink jet printer, for example, there is a case where airflow turbulence occurs between the printing head and the printing medium due to a relative movement between a carriage on which the printing head that includes a nozzle array made of a plurality of nozzles is mounted and the printing medium. When an ink drop lands on a position deviated from the desired position on the printing medium due to such air turbulence, there is a case where a density irregularity called “wind ripple” occurs in a printed image (print image), for example. With regard to this problem, in JP-A-2010-179626, a recording apparatus that includes an ink jet recording head is disclosed, which has a carriage that moves over a recording medium, a plurality of discharge ports which are arrayed on the bottom surface of the carriage and from which liquid is discharged when the carriage is moving, and a movable member that is provided in front of the moving direction of the carriage and causes airflow to be generated toward the front of the moving direction of the carriage when the carriage is moving.
In the technology disclosed in JP-A-2010-179626, by providing the movable member that causes airflow to be generated toward the front of the moving direction of the carriage, the airflow flowing in between the discharge port and the recording medium can be prevented without depending on the movement speed of the carriage. In this way, it is possible to stably generate the airflow for reducing the wind ripple. However, when such a movable member is separately provided to the printing apparatus, there is a concern that the structure of the printing apparatus becomes complicated and the manufacturing cost of the printing apparatus increases. In addition, in order to print an image with a high resolution at a high speed, for example, measures such as; increasing the number of nozzles used for printing a predetermined range, increasing the frequency of discharging ink, and increasing the relative movement speed between a head unit and the printing medium, are taken. However, even taking such measures, there is a case where such the generation of the airflow surrounding the head unit and the airflow toward the printing medium from the head unit are caused, and thus the wind ripple occurs. Therefore, by merely providing the movable member to the printing apparatus, there is a case where it is difficult to reduce the wind ripple that is generated for various reasons. In addition, in the printing apparatus in which the wind ripple can be reduced, a reduction in cost, a saving of resources, an ease of manufacturing, and an improvement in usability are desired.